In my youth I was one of those pencil shaped people, and I just walked into any level of store and bought whatever the budget could sustain. I never gave clothes shopping much attention. As my friend pool expanded, and I made close, close friends with women who were so NOT pencil shaped, I began to understand not everyone could just walk into a department store and start trying on as many things as they could stand to put on and take off. And, even worse, my big friends were body shamed by the clerks who were supposedly helping them find clothing.
It wasn't until my 50's that my body significantly changed from pencil shaped to plus sized. The combination of menopause, stopping smoking, and my foot problems caused me to gain weight. Now, I had to face first hand not being able to shop on the 'regular' racks. It took me about five years to recover enough physically to realize I would never accept dieting, and I would have to learn to exercise much more faithfully than I have ever wanted. It also took me years to accept my new body type. And, I was an adult!
When I was teaching fifteen year olds, I was constantly amazed by the body pride of big black girls. It didn't matter that they weighed 200 pounds. They accentuated their curves with tight tops, low cut jeans, and always had their hair, makeup and nails flawlessly done. Was it teenage over the top fashion? Absolutely. However, they acted like they thought they were beautiful, and the boys whose attention they wanted acted so too. In the same hallways were big white girls in over sized t-shirts, slouching along with their head down acting like they were the ugliest things in the world. Guess which ones I admired? I even tried to pair these two types of girls together in class projects hoping for some kind of friendship to arise. Occasionally, it did. And, man oh man, could you see the difference in how those white girls started to dress and carry themselves.
Since I'd seen first hand how clothes can change a big girl's perception of herself, this article I read further opened my eyes. Here are some of the quotes from the article which stood out to me:
"Fashion industry gospel: Women of a certain size didn't spend money on clothes. They don't want clingy, or to show their arms, legs or cleavage."
"I've never been small. As a teenager I wanted to be wearing polo shirts, and crop tops, but they didn't sell them in 'plus size' stores."
"Naysayers argue that plus-size style promotes obesity, as if poly-blend muumuus is a hair shirt a woman must wear until she drops some pounds."
If you aren't outraged by that last statement, you should be. Think of your friends. Don't you have at least one who is built on the Eastern European, Russian, Germanic, or certain African tribal body type? The term 'big boned' isn't just a euphemistic phrase for fat. These women literally have large bones, and large muscles covering them. Not too long ago, these were considered the 'beautiful women' because they could work tirelessly and drop babies effortlessly. Nowadays, they are ostracized and shamed. Women with this body type can starve themselves and they will never, ever reach the fashion ideal of size 2,4,6 or 8. The fashion industry punishes them by not producing desirable clothing.
Christian Siriano, a designer on the Time 100 list, has dressed A-listers for all types of red carpet events. (This guy got his start on Project Runway.) The red carpet is like the Superbowl for fashion designers since these outfits are shown nationally and critiqued endlessly. When Leslie Jones ("Ghostbusters" actor) couldn't find anything to wear for the red carpet premiere, Siriano stepped in. Now, he's producing a ready to wear line in sizes 0 - 28. Sirano is mirroring the new trend in the industry. He says, "Beauty comes in all different forms. We need to celebrate it." Every other aspect of the garment industry is flat EXCEPT for garments that are size 14 and up.
I also learned one reason the garment industry has been so slow to adapt to production of ready to wear clothing in plus sizes. You have to cut an entirely different pattern for clothing larger than size 14. You need bigger bustlines, longer crotchlines and bigger hips since larger women are "wider and deeper, but their arms and legs are the same size". Skills like this aren't routinely taught in design schools. Re-patterning costs money.
Another fascinating nugget was how Lane Bryant, the queen of plus sizes, got started. First, she was a real woman. (Lena Himmelstein Bryant). She was a Lithuanian immigrant who was a seamstress in New York City. In the early 1900's, a pregnant customer asked her for a dress she could wear outside her home. Bryant wasn't a designer, but she could instantly sniff out a market. Initially, department stores refused to buy her designs: These clothes were indecent. She turned to catalog sales and the rest is history. She was also the first entrepreneur to make clothes in the 1950's for 'chubby' teen girls. It wasn't until the 1920's that there was mass produced 'stout wear' from the rest of the garment industry. It was relegated to 'special sections', just like it still is today. The 'special section' creates a stigma of its own.
Even with proven sales, and data on this growing market, "lots of companies are waiting for critical mass. They are looking at their competitors and thinking, 'You guys go first'." Even with the hesitancy of the core of the industry, big women are getting more choices than ever before. From teens, new to fashion, to professional women, to post age 50 women, thanks to the internet, there are more clothes available than ever before.
A huge plus to this article was naming the designers producing ready to wear clothing which you can peruse on-line showing it modeled by big women instead of pencil sized women. Here is a small smattering of the websites you might want to check out.
Candice Huffine: Day/Won https://day-won.com/
https://www.all67.com/
This link shows the clothes on different sized models: https://www.goodamerican.com/
Megababe beauty concentrates on beauty products for big women.
https://megababebeauty.com/collections/all-products
Some of the other brands/websites you can look for are: CoEdition, Reformation, Roucha, Tadeshi Sjoji, NYDJ, JCPenney's, Franne Golde, Lafayette 148 New York, Talbots, Loft, Gwynnie Bee, Stitch Fix, Dia& Co, Violeta by Mango, ASOS Curve and Plus Size, Simply Be.
Work out clothes: Fabletics, Sela Fit, Beyond Yoga.
Big shoes: Long Tall Sally, Amazon Fashion, Lonia.
Shapewear: Ruby Ribbon, ThirdLove.
I've just given you a skim of this article. It was published in "O" in 2018. You can probably find it in its entirety online.
